System for utililizing water-power



(No Model-i) W. 0R-R. SYSTEM FOR UTILIZING WATER POWER.

Patented Apr. 9.11889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.`

WILLIAM ORR, OF TROY, NEW YORK.

SYSTEM FOR UTILVIKLIZING WATER-POWER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 400,940, dated April 9, 1889.

Application filed January l5J 1889. Serial No. 296,426. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, VILLIAM ORR, of the city of Troy, county of Rensselaer, State of New York, have invented a new and useful System for Utilizing Tater-Power, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a system for utilizing water-power; and the object and pur-` pose of my invention are by a new method of application to obtain the best capacities of an existing power, to avoid the waste of the latter and in application to make better available for use the site and area surrounding the latter, and to better facilitate the transmission of the power on long lines of application.

As heretofore practiced, water has been taken from a level by means of asluice, from which latter it was taken by one or more gateways to operate one or more wheels, from the tail-races of which another level was established and use made of the water again by supplying it to other wheels, from the tail-races of which it passed into the stream below the dam or falls. This older method necessarily must have an intermediate fall between the use of the upper and lower level that constituted a measure of waste or loss. Again, this manner of taking water necessitated the construction of a tail-race from each wheel, and only made available for direct use that side of the sluice which was adj acent to the stream. As distinguished from this older method of using the water, as between two or more levels located one below the other in succession, by means of my improved system all the head capacity of the fall is used and made available in each application by using turbine wheels where the head of water above the wheel, as well as the tubular or suction draft of the pipe-conduit leading from the wheel is utilized, so that much less water is required to produce a given quantity of power. To thus utilize all vthe head of the fall upon oney of several or many turbine Wheels, a tail-race is produced in the form of a tunnel that is located below the sluiceway, into which tunnel or tail-race the several tubular dischargeconduits of the turbine wheels discharge. With asluiceway and tailrace thus arranged both sidesof the former are available for occupancy, and the building of factories or buildings for using the power obtained and the sluiceway and tail-race may be continued as far as the water-supply and the topography of the country will permit. The excavation of a wheel-pit and boring therefrom to the underground raeeway is all the excavation required after the sluiceway and tail-race tunnel are completed.

Accompanying this "specification, to form a. part of it, there is a sheet of drawings containing two figures, illustrating my invention, with the same designation of parts by letter reference used in both of them.

Of the illustrations, Figure l is a plan view of mill-site located upon thetop of a cliff that fronts on a stream adjacently to a fall in the latter. This illustration shows also a sluiceway that is supplied with water from the upper level above the falls, and it illustrates a series of mills arranged upon each side of the sluiceway with a tunnel-form tail-race having a lower level than the sluiceway, indicated by a dotted line. Fig. 2 illustrates a side elevation of the cliff at and below the water-fall, showing also the mills or buildings designed to use the power, and also the sluiceway intake-gates. This figure illustrates by means of a dotted line the sluiceway and the tunnelform tail-race, into which the pipes leading from the turbine wheels discharge.

The several parts thus illustrated are designated by letter reference, and the function of the parts, as arranged and constructed to carry out my system, is described as follows:

The letter S designates the stream; U, its upper level; L, its lower level, and F its water-fall.

The letter S2 designates the sluiceway constructed and arranged to open out into the upper level and to receive water therefrom,

`controlled by the gates G.

The letter T designates the tunnel-form tailrace, of which there is a branch below and at each side of the sluiceway, and these branches are preferably arranged to connect, as at O, and have a common outlet, O.

The letters WV designate the wheel-pits arranged above the tail-race; O2, a conduit leading to each of the stand-pipes P, by which water in column is caused to act on the tur- IOO bine wheels W2, and P2 designates a suction or discharge pipe connecting the outlet from the wheel with the tail-race, whereby the discharge column of water in said pipe P2 in each in stance creates a draft or suction upon the wheel to add to its power capacity.

The letters B indicate buildings arranged upon each side of the sluiceway to utilize the power developed by the wheels acted upon by the water.

The letter C3 designates the clii.

As thus arranged, each wheel used receives the full capacity of the head, as it is divided up most conveniently between the columnpressure in the wheel stand-pipe and the draft or suction capacity of the dischargepipe leading from the wheel to the tail-race. While the water is thus used economically, the sluiceway and tail-race tunnels may be continued any distance that the supply of water will warrant or the topography of the country permit. As thus arranged, both sides of the sluiceway are made available for use and occupancy, and to make a connection to utilize locally the power all that is required is to excavatc for the wheel and its standpipe, and to bore from where the wheel is placed to the tail-race for theinsertion of the suction or discharge pipe.

The locating of the tail-race below the sluiceway and giving to it a tunnel form leaves the surface undisturbed, the only excavation required on the surface being that taken up by the sluieeway, and by having the tail-race be low the Wheels all that advantage produced by the dischargedraft of the vertical pipe leading from the Wheel to the tail-race is had, which could not be obtained did the water run directly from the wheels to the tail-race on an incline or in an open cut.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The system for utilizing water-power here in described, consisting of a sluiceway arranged `to receive water from the elevated level of a stream or pond, a tunnel-form tailrace having a lower level than the sluiceway, a series ot wheel-pits containing turbine wheels having their stand-pipes connected with and so as to receive water from said sluiceway, and each provided with a vertical discharge or draft pipe connecting the discharge from the wheels with the tunnel-form raceway, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed at the city of Troy, New York, this 21st day ot December, 1388, and in the presence of the two Witnesses whose names are hereto written.

VVILTJIABI OBR.

Witnesses:

W. E. HOGAN, CHARLES S. lERINTNALL. 

